Elena Ceaușescu, the wife of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, was the most hated woman in all of Romania. For over 40 years the couple ran a double-headed tyranny. While Nicolae Ceaușescu exhibited narcissistic tendencies, it was Elena's megalomania that proved more repulsive. As time went on, Nicolae became more and more dependent on his wife to make decisions. When the revolution of 1989 toppled the Ceaușescus, it was Elena more than her husband that the people wanted to see die.
Lenuța Petrescu, later Elena Ceaușescu, was born in 1916 to a peasant family. There was nothing particularly special about her upbringing. Rather, her background was rather disappointing. She attended school where she flunked everything except needlework. She was known as a “repetente”, or, somebody who was too mediocre to move up to the next grade. She later got a job in a hole in the wall medicine factory owned by a family member. Much like her husband Nicolae, Elena later developed a crude fervor for socialism. Later she joined the Romanian Communist Party where she met her future husband. They were both the perfect pair of Party nobodies who would ironically become Stalinist stars of Romania.
Elena's chance at absolute power came with the ascension of her husband as the General Secretary of the C.P.R. in 1965. The regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu was like nothing the Eastern Block had ever seen. It had narcissistic and monarchal tones combined with ultra nationalism. Romania became a living theater with all of its citizens playing as actors in a show about themselves. The propaganda machine worked overtime. With Nicolae Ceaușescu, the propaganda always exaggerated, but with Elena they totally invented. Nicolae was always protrayed as an infallible idealistic genius. Elena was the most beautiful and intelligent woman in the world. The so-called ideal socialist wife. Romanian artists commissioned countless portraits of the two leaders who never seemed to grow old.
Perhaps the most nefarious and undeserving title for Elena was “Scientist of World Renown". Songs and videos depicting Elena hard at work making scientific discoveries we're shown around the world for all to see. Incredibly, her facade fooled many people, including the West. Numerous books on chemistry and other scientific studies were written by ghost writers. Elena had only one rule for them, “You write, I sign.” In reality, Elena was an ignorant backwards woman who didn't even know the chemical formulas for water and carbon dioxide. Sometimes her ignorance was evident. Whenever she was given difficult questions to answer Elena would consult with her team. The interviewer was never allowed to translate directly from Elena, but instead by those who were speaking for her. During a trip to England, Elena would receive her greatest prize yet. Over at the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Elena received a diploma of some kind which only supported the lie that she was a great scientist.
It was one thing to lie to the world about image and ability, and then another to rule a country. Between the two tyrants, Elena was the most feared and despised by the population. In 1971, the Ceaușescus visited the People's Republic of China. While Nicolae met with chairman Mao, Elena befriended Mao's wife Jiang Qing, who convinced her that she should become more of a power in the government on her own right. Elena took Jiang Qing's advice seriously. By the end of the 1970s, power had gone to the Romanian couple's heads. It was Elena who played the most destructive role in Nicolae's life. She completely dominated him. If you watch recorded speeches given by Nicolae Ceaușescu at Party congresses, he often seems to turn to his wife the moment he makes a decree or gives an opinion. As the years went by Elena gradually took more positions of leadership within the Party and government for herself. Even other party members disliked Elena who was often referred to as a “viper”. Elena was also a mean person to be around. She was taught, uptight, and absolutely humorless. She was even jealous of younger Romanian women. Elena once ruined the career of a popular young actress because she had a better looking body than her. Elena ordered the secret police to constantly monitor her children and report back what they were doing. During big dinner parties, Elena would belittle the staff by denying them any portion of the leftover food because they were “not worthy enough" to receive such a gift. While much of the Romanian population lived in absolute squalor, Elena enjoyed living in the finest mansions of Romania. She had an obsession with crystal chandeliers.
By 1989, Elena was practically running the country. She screened all of her husband's mail and prevented him from receiving disturbing reports about unrest in the country. At Nicolae Ceaușescu's final speech, the two tyrants looked out with shock and confusion as their own subjects booed and screamed at them. Additional footage of that fateful day reveals how out of touch both of them were. Nicolae Ceaușescu tries in vein to calm his subjects while Elena can be heard in the background telling them to “shut up". At one point, Elena could be heard suggesting that the protesters all be shot. It was too late. The two dictators fled in their helicopter as the protesters stormed the Party headquarters. They didn't get far before being captured at an army base. During their makeshift trial, Nicolae and Elena remained unrepentant as ever, even as their sentence of death was issued. As they were both tied up and marched off to the firing wall, Elena could be heard screaming at the soldiers, “Shame on you!! Shame on you!! I raised you like a mother!! Why are you doing this!?” Before the soldiers opened fire, Nicolae sang the International. Elena's final angry words to her executioners were, “You mother fuckers!!”. She died a foul-mouthed tyrant.